The highly-anticipated update to

“The Bible of Law Enforcement”

By Charles Remsburg, Lt. Dan Marcou, & Lt. Jim Glennon

Presented by Calibre Press

Tactics for Deadly Force Encounters

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Legacy Continues

Intrn

In the first edition of Street Survival, Chuck Remsberg brought together stories, tactics, and techniques from officers from all over the country. Chuck introduced a new way of thinking about training, preparation, mindset and systemic philosophies by sharing tactics that many officers had never been exposed to. The book was nicknamed ‘The Bible of Law Enforcement’ and used in Agencies and Academies worldwide.

Now, thanks to the effort and insights of two highly skilled and experienced co-authors, Dan Marcou and Jim Glennon, the classic Street Survival has been revamped to continue its unique protective role for those on the job in a new millennium. Having “been there” for a combined total of 68 years, Marcou and Glennon came to this project well-equipped to add extensive new and cutting-edge content to the book’s enduring fundamentals, all dead-on relevant for officers facing today’s heightened dangers.

Calibre Press is excited to continue our Street Survival legacy with this book and it’s a MUST READ for every rank and file, sworn law enforcement officer, first responder, and security professional.

Brian Willis Interviews Jim Glennon

Excerpts from the Book

Guardian or Warrior?

Who Are We?

What Are We Supposed To Be?

“It does not matter if the cobblers and masons fail to do their jobs well, but if the guardians fail, the democracy will crumble.”– Plato, the Greek philosopher

Plato, a student of Socrates, lived 400 years before Christ. The ancient philosopher believed that the Republic’s guardians were a “unique class of citizens” who protected society from its enemies and enforced its laws. He differentiated between the guardians and a military force while recognizing their undeniable necessity in a functioning society.

“The police are the public and the public are the police.”– Sir Robert Peel

Sir Robert Peel is regarded as the father of modern British policing. He founded the Metropolitan Police Force in London at Scotland Yard in 1829. Establishing a force of 1,000 constables, the officers were nicknamed bobbies and charged with preserving order.

Yet the question persists among law enforcement. Who are we supposed to be, what are we supposed to do, what does the community expect from us, and should public opinion influence how police agencies carry out their respective missions?

Guardian and Warrior; Are They Mutually Exclusive?

There has been much discussion inside and outside of the law enforcement profession about the use of the term warrior when used to describe a modern day civilian peace officer. Many are uncomfortable with such phraseology in today’s society. But, at some point in his or her career, virtually every police officer will engage in hand-to-hand combat with nomat, no referee, and no second place. Many will be punched, cut, shot and wounded. Some will be killed. Yet in spite of this reality, trainers are sometimes criticized for using the term warrior or for developing a warrior spirit in their trainees.

All police officers know that their primary role is as a guardian. They are guardians of the law, guardians of the U. S. Constitution, guardians of their fellow officers, guardians of the public that they are duty-bound to serve and protect, and guardians of their own honor.

Guardian’s Heart…Warrior’s Spirit

In the Street Survival Seminar we use the phrase: Guardian’s Heart…Warrior’s Spirit! It describes the balance that is our profession. Officers need to possess the ideals of both, often at the same time.

Approach to Danger: People

“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.”

– Bruce Lee

Waiting until you need to draw and fire your gun before you think about survival tactics is like waiting until you’re coughing up blood to think about annual physical checkups. You should have survival in your conscious thoughts the moment you receive a call, for the moves you make at the onset may directly affect the outcome. By properly planning your approach to a call you may be able to prevent a shooting from occurring. Or, if prevention proves impossible, you will have at least positioned yourself where you are exposed to the least risk and have the best chance of responding effectively when danger does erupt.

Where many officers go wrong is in assuming that an assignment is inconsequential and approach on automatic pilot. For example, have you ever heard an alarm call go out and a conclusion reached and announced over the radio that, “This will be the third false alarm call there this month,” before the officer has even arrived? With one simple transmission they have shrugged off their survival mindset and encouraged other responding officers to do the same.

Complacency

Officers too often fail to consider that, going in, there is a great deal about any given situation that they do not know. After presuming one set of circumstances on the basis of appearances or past experience, they may find themselves confronting quite another for which they are not prepared.

In Oregon, for example, a sergeant who stopped to help a teenage couple in a disabled car did not know the girl was an escapee or that they would kill him because they thought he intended to arrest her.

In Milwaukee, an officer responding to a disturbance at a house where police had been fifty previous times without incident, did not know that this time the husband who was beating his wife, had picked up a .30-06 rifle on his way home and would shoot the officer for “messin in.”

And in Georgia, an officer who walked up to the door of a cocktail lounge that was ajar after normal closing time figuring it was just another “open door” was shot dead by the armed burglar inside.

With a survival mindset, you approach every call and contact anticipating the possibility of resistance. Better to be prepared for some type of resistance, up to and including armed resistance, than to assume you will receive compliance and be caught totally off guard by a deadly assault.

“When/Then” Perspective

On each step of the approach, consider the opportunities an offender might have for shooting at you and the ways in which you might prevent or respond to an attack. In other words, you make a habit of figuring, “When A happens, then I’m going to do B,” adjusting for new developments as you go. Consider the totality of the situation—the context, the environment.

It’s a habit you need to practice faithfully, regardless of your assignment. Note that we don’t say, IF but rather WHEN. If leaves a doubt in your mind that such a thing may not happen. When institutes a belief of inevitability thus creating urgency to prepare and establish the skill of awareness.

Danger Cues & Preattack Indicators

Q: “In the vast majority of cases, before people attack, what do they do?

A: “They tell you.”

– Calibre Press Street Survival Seminar

Human Behavior Specialists

If dealing with people is what we law enforcement officers do, then when it comes to that topic we need to become the world’s foremost experts.

In our Calibre Press Communication Seminars, one of the first things we do is immediately articulate the professional goal for all law enforcement officers when on the job.

That goal is: To control, redirect, and influence other people’s immediate behavior.

In short, we address, deal with, and attempt to control, redirect, influence, and yes, manipulate the behavior of others. And in virtually every case, a person’s behavior is dictated by their emotions.

This is the area in which we need to focus our training. Human behavior. Human emotions. Emotions affected and often controlled by stress.

What does this have to do with picking up danger cues and preattack indicators?

Everything. Because communication is everything.

The human animal is in a constant state of communication. While no theory is ever 100 percent predictive, know that before most people attack they will experience some level of emotional and biological stress. The higher the stress, the more pronounced the behavioral cues. The higher the stress, the more they will leak out intent, motivation, and purpose.

There is an old adage in the martial arts world that goes something like this: You know the best way to avoid getting punched? Don’t be there when it shows up.

For our purposes, we want to massage that message with this advice: Recognize that an attack can be stopped before it starts and deterred or detected through the development of exceptional and effective communication skills.

Again, nothing is 100 percent and if someone absolutely wants to attack, injure, and/or kill a police officer, at times there is nothing that can be done to deter such an individual’s murderous intent. Detecting, however, is another thing altogether.

First, let’s address the deterrence issue from two perspectives.

1. Don’t incite, provoke or inflame violent behavior.

While there is virtually never an excuse for someone to resist or attack a police officer, as professionals we need to recognize that often our nonverbal and verbal behavior may incite violent emotions from the person with whom we are engaged. This can be simplified by saying it comes down to the way we treat the other person.

Again, this does not justify an attack, but police officers should be experts in dealing with the emotions of human beings. Let me say that again. We need to be experts at dealing with human beings and their accompanying emotions.

A person who is angry at the outset, for whatever reason, must be recognized as a potential threat to the responding officer. Minimize antagonizing such a person; this should be obvious. However, police officers seem to ignore the fact that some words and behaviors are of a calming nature and others incite.

2. Deter violent behavior and intent.

“I’m going to kick your ass, you motherfucker!”

Every veteran police officer has encountered people using such language indicating violent intent. Some have heard this kind of vile rhetoric hundreds of times.

Contrary to media hype, most officers are very successful at calming the irrational and avoiding physical violence in order to control or defend a subject. Officers do this by using the appropriate words, tone of voice, facial expression, and body language.

Understanding body language, the paralinguistic (voice tone, inflection, rate of speech, amplitude, pitch, etc.) statement analysis, and the general reading of people, however, is not an exact science. This makes it difficult to teach in the formal, limited settings found in law enforcement training.

Balance is the key, but there is no specific balance point. There are no words you can definitively use to calm someone. No body language that always means a particular thing. When it comes to communicating effectively, everything is contextual.

ABOUT THE UPDATE

Calibre Press has been inundated with requests for us to do this rewrite for over a decade. Rarely is there a Street Survival Seminar where someone doesn’t walk up to an instructor and talk about what the original book meant to them. It sells to this day. So doing a rewrite, or rather an update, was a daunting task.

This 2018 update sought to build on many of the original’s goals as well as exploring the issues facing law enforcement officers today.

Lt. Dan Marcou and the owner of Calibre Press, Lt. Jim Glennon, with a combined experience of over 75 years, spent over one year on this project. They lived, breathed, agonized and picked each other’s brains constantly.

Mr. Charles Remsberg was with us every step of the way offering his advice, counsel and ultimately his approval of the updated work. That approval, which was not a forgone conclusion on the part of the Calibre team, meant more than we can express here.

About the Publisher

Calibre Press

Calibre Press is a public safety training company that aims to make first responders, and the communities they serve, safer, smarter, and more successful. It is a privilege to serve this noble profession through a variety of platforms and media, including books, CalibrePress.com, e-learning platforms, conferences, and live seminars.

Published Books

Best Sellers

Followers

Other Books

Street Survival II

For more than a year Lt. Jim Glennon and Lt. Dan Marcou have been researching, conducting interviews and re-writing the ground-breaking book, Street Survival. Published in 1980, the book has often been referred to as; the “Bible for Law Enforcement”. The new book, Street Survival II: Tactics for Deadly Force Encounters is enthusiastically endorsed by the original author Chuck Remsberg. While paying homage to the original, the update includes more than 400 colored photos and diagrams and delves into the profession’s many changes over the past three decades. It includes tactics, effective street communication, detecting preattack indicators, public expectations and especially the realities of using force.

Arresting Communications

Arresting Communication is entertaining, realistic, right on point and provides absolutely essential skills for all in Law Enforcement. Jim uses cop humor, relatable situations and borrows from his 30 years of experience in Law Enforcement to make his case that communication skills are at the heart of success both personally and professionally. If you are in public safety, this book should be a mandatory read; it could save your career and perhaps your life.

Left of Bang

You walk into a restaurant and get an immediate sense that you should leave. You are about to step on to an elevator with a stranger and something stops you. You interview a potential new employee who has the resume to do the job, but something tells you not to offer a position. These scenarios all represent LEFT OF BANG, the moments before something bad happens.

Our goal continues to be the same now as in the beginning: When you need it most, Street Survival will be there.

– CHARLES REMSBERG

TRAINING COURSES & SEMINARS

Street Survival® Seminar

Today’s Street Survival® Seminar addresses law enforcement as the multi-faceted profession it has become. Rather than limiting our focus to just surviving deadly threats, we also discuss the need to prepare officers for making sound, legal and reasonable decisions under stress in order to preserve the lives of citizens as well as their own.

The foundation of the program is understanding and training realistically for stress events. From driving too fast and using unwarranted amounts of force to ineffective communication and the inability to decompress off-duty, the seminar emphasizes the need to understand and manage stress as the key to professional and personal success.

Calibre Press for the first time in its over 36 year history is owned by a law enforcement officer. Lt. Jim Glennon leads a cadre of Instructors who are some of the most experienced, dynamic and respected in our profession. The Street Survival® Seminar continues presenting classic training points while also addressing current events issues impacting the profession through the use of lecture and up-to-date videos of police/citizen interactions.

Finally, the Seminar emphasizes the need to understand people and communicate effectively as they embrace the role of civilian peace officers. The Seminar topics will include, but not be limited to, the following: